1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to prefabricated fireplaces that provide both radiant heat and convection heat. More particularly, the present invention relates to using heat from a fireplace to mix with cold outside fresh air or to preheat outside fresh air used to raise the air quality in a home.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that it is possible to build heat efficient houses so tight that the air inside of a home becomes stale. There is no universal standard in all states which defines the minimum amount of outside make-up air required to maintain the indoor air quality.
The State of Minnesota has proposed that the air in a heated house be replaced every two hours. Minnesota has also proposed that a minimum of a set amount of cubic feet of outside air for each bedroom plus another set amount of air for the remainder of a house be replaced every hour. At present, all known proposed standards leave the solution to builders of custom equipment.
Heretofore, it was known that an auxiliary air pump could be installed in an old house to pull in a predetermined amount of outside fresh air to make-up or refresh the stale air in a home. Large custom air conditioning systems, if properly designed, introduce into the air conditioning system a small percentage of fresh air, however, there is no standard and the equipment is not mass-produced, thus, imposing a substantial cost to new home builders.
It would be desirable to incorporate an air make-up or air quality replacement system into present mass produced, low cost, prefabricated fireplaces and combination fireplaces/forced air furnace systems and still maintain high efficiency.
It is a principal object of the present invention to introduce into a fireplace/furnace system outside fresh make-up air in a manner that does not unbalance the heating system.
It is a principal object of the present invention to mix outside fresh air into a return air duct or ducts and add the convection heat from a fireplace into the same return air duct.
It is a principal object of the present invention to introduce a predetermined amount of make-up air into a fireplace to produce heated and diluted exhaust air products that are then used in an efficient heat exchanger to preheat fresh outside make-up air being supplied to a return air plenum.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an efficient co-linear fireplace system having hot exhaust gases that are passed through a novel remotely located heat exchanger system for preheating outside make-up air being supplied to a return air plenum of a quality air system.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a novel air-to-air heat exchanger having a pair of separately controlled blower motors for universal use in fireplace/furnace duct systems to supply variable amounts of make-up air in an air quality system.
According to these and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a fireplace with a heat exchanger exhaust system for heating or preheating outside fresh air that is then introduced into return air ducts of a forced air furnace system.